Demistfying ISO9001 Part 2

As a follow up to an earlier post about simplifying the terminology of ISO9001, I decided to pick another section that seems to give first timers a bit of grief and break it down into simpler parts.

Section 8.2.4 of the standard covers Monitoring and Measurement of Product. This is another section of the standard that can be quite difficult to apply to non-manufacturing industries.

Broken down into its individual parts though it is a bit more management.

Part 1:

"The organization shall monitor and measure the characteristics of the product to verify that product
requirements have been met."

Ok, so what this is asking you to do is determine what your customers require of your product/service, and how to prove that the requirements have been met. This is still quite a "manufacturing" style requirement but it can still be applied to other business types.

Lets take a construction company for example. By setting check points throughout the construction process, you can accurately determine your adherence to customer requirements without waiting till the end and having to make changes.

Part 2:

The second part of this requirement basically echoes what I said in part 1.

"This shall be carried out at appropriate stages of the product realization process in accordance with the planned arrangements (see 7.1). Evidence of conformity with the acceptance criteria shall be maintained."

What this is asking is that throughout your production/service delivery process, that you set checkpoints (where you see fit) throughout the process to ensure that you are still meeting requirements and keep evidence of it.

So in the case of the construction company, keeping evidence of each verification stage (ie. customer
sign off on decisions) would meet this requirement.

Part 3:

The last part is pretty straightforward


"Records shall indicate the person(s) authorizing release of product for delivery to the customer (see 4.2.4). The release of product and delivery of service to the customer shall not proceed until the planned arrangements
(see 7.1) have been satisfactorily completed, unless otherwise approved by a relevant authority and, whereapplicable, by the customer."

This basically just says whoever is responsible for approving your finished product needs to keep records of approval that all requirements have been met before handing it over to the customer.

Hopefully this makes this section a bit more digestible.

Three Things that Most Certified Businesses are Terrible At

There are three specific ISO9001 requirements that I find most businesses I visit are terrible at.

These are:

- Document Control
- Corrective & Preventative Action; and
- Management Review

I'm not entirely sure why it is, but I think its because it takes a real drive from the top to make it work. Funnily enough the businesses that do it well are generally the ones where the business owner or General Manager has taken a really active role in developing and implementing the Management System.

Implementing Document Controls is an absolute pain when starting to develop a new Management System. Everyone loves to keep a copy of forms in their own personal folder so they don't have to keep looking for them when they're needed. People also love creating their own forms to suit their needs without going through any approval process. This is where the drive from senior management is required. If the boss is strict on document control then everyone tends to fall in line.

Corrective and Preventative Action is also a requirement that tends to get overlooked until right before an audit or until a major issue has occurred. By rewarding identification of potential and actual issues rather than punishing non-conformance it changes the culture of corrective and preventative action. People will be much more inclined to report issues if they won't get in trouble for it and there is an incentive to do so.

Lastly Management Review is probably the most poorly handled ISO9001 requirement that I see on a regular basis. It is rare to see a properly minuted, detailed and beneficial Quality Management Review that covers all of the agenda input items required by ISO9001. The majority I see are done purely to meet auditor requirements and provide no real benefit to the business whatsoever. This is one requirement that really needs a strong leader to ensure it gets done and gets done well.

Home Health & Safety. Christmas Tree Fires

Someone just sent me this video which I thought I might as well post it here seeing as Christmas decorations will start going up in homes around Australia tomorrow.

It's amazing how quickly the Christmas tree on the left (unwatered) goes up in flames versus the one on the right (regularly watered).

If you're going to have a real Christmas tree, ensure that

• You only have lights on when you are around (definitely turn them off before bed)
• You have a fire extinguisher readily available in your house.
• You check your lights for cable damage (Some can be ooooold and may be frayed); and
• You regularly water your tree to make it last longer and less flammable

Demistifying ISO9001 part 1

the ISO9001 standard (whilst good for its purpose) is a boring document that can be quite difficult to comprehend for a first timer. There are certain sections of the standard that can seem really difficult to apply to some industries if you haven't been through the process before.

For example lets look at Product & Service Provision.

7.5.3 Identification and traceability
Where appropriate, the organization shall identify the product by suitable means throughout product realization.
The organization shall identify the product status with respect to monitoring and measurement requirements throughout product realization.
Where traceability is a requirement, the organization shall control the unique identification of the product and maintain records (see 4.2.4).

For a company in a service industry, this requirement can be as confusing as hell.

Sometimes it's a matter of tweaking the terminology a bit and asking the question in a different way.

If you were an accountant for example your product is your time, advice, reports etc. So in this case, what kind of identification methods do you use to differentiate clients? Do you have a numbering system for reports? How do you track your time spent with a client for invoicing.

The next paragraph is a bit trickier. How do you identify the status of the work you're carrying out throughout the process? Using the accountant example again, how would you identify work in progress versus work completed? Perhaps you save all work in progress in a separate folder and mark it as draft?

The final paragraph may apply to you, it may not. What you need to ask yourself is "Does the product/service I'm providing need to be tracked or identified in some way. If it does, you need to keep records of it as per your records control procedure. Using the accounting example again, the product might be a tax return. You might save them with an individual file name or reference number and this would be listed somewhere (ie. records control register)

I hope this helps make at least one requirement of the standard easier to apply.

Another one for the QA "WTF" files

I posted a blog the other day about companies claiming quality without proving it.

Today's post is a bit different but still along the same lines.

I purchased some new drill bits the other day and when I turned over the packet to open them up I read this on the back.

 

There are two issues here. First one being you're not "accredited to ISO" you are certified. More importantly, ISO 9002 hasn't existed for over 12 years!!! Seriously, who is handling your document control???

I quick check of their website shows they are certified to ISO9001, but there is definitely a gap in the system somewhere.

Businesses Claiming Quality Assurance that aren't Certified

I noticed this yesterday when I was grocery shopping and as someone that works hard to ensure that Quality Assurance means something it annoyed me quite a lot (I should probably get out more)

My problem with this is that although "Quality Assured" is stamped on there with a big tick, Black and Gold is not QA certified, neither is their parent company IGA. It's the equivalent of putting an organic label on something that has not gone through any form of certification process to ensure that it is organic.

I've noticed it a lot lately when I visit company websites. There are plenty of sites out there with a "Quality Assurance" tab and lots of fluffy words about their quality processes which make it look like they are a certified business, but when you look them up on the register of certified companies, they are nowhere to be found.

So that's my rant for the day.

Quality Assurance in Web and App design

I was doing a bit of research this morning on different industries we could approach and I discovered that I could not find a single web design or app design business within Melbourne that had Quality Assurance certification. Many websites had reference to performing QA tests or inspections but I couldn't find any that actually said "we are QA certified".

With so many competitors in the marketplace I was suprised that I could not find a single business that was advertising it at all. There were many that discussed quality assurance processes they follow but none actually certified.

With any new and popular industry there are many new competitors entering the market on a daily basis, the best way to distinguish yourself from the pack is by establishing a point of difference. If it comes down to a decision between one design company and another with similar prices but only one is certified, most people will go with the certified business because they know that they conduct business a certain way and have had to prove that they meet strict ISO guidelines.

By choosing a company with ISO9001 certfication you know:

• They have a strict design and development system in place for all stages of the design process
• They conduct internal audits of their own system to identify issues.
• Any suppliers/subcontractors have been reviewed for suitability to established criteria; and 
• They will be reviewed at minimum on yearly basis by an external certification provider to ensure they remain compliant.

If large businesses are shopping around for a new design firm, these are the kinds of things that help them make their final decision.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone knows of any quality certified companies.